After a delay of half an hour or so, a retainer entered to inform me that So Too had fallen asleep in the council-room, and that no one save a Mandarin with an opaque blue, transparent blue, flowered red or plain red button could presume to awaken him, and that there was no Mandarin of so exalted a dignity within fifty miles of that spot.
At these words my blood fairly boiled over.
I sprang to my feet and began to pace the floor like a caged animal.
Coming to a halt in front of a tall lacquer cabinet loaded down with costly porcelain cups and vases, I raised my foot, and kicking out vigorously, toppled the thing over on the floor.
The crash was terrible.
I was really startled, for I was afraid I had knocked half the house down.
But I had the satisfaction of seeing the Mandarin come rushing into the room, followed by assistants, sub-assistants, gong-beaters, sword-bearers, head-shavers, ear-ticklers, tongue-scrapers, nail-polishers, and skin-rubbers, besides many others of his retainers, whose offices and callings were unknown to me.
“You have deliberated, now decide!” I exclaimed in a tone of voice that for depth and volume would have done credit to the hero of a blood curdling drama; and at the same moment I placed the sole of my foot against another cabinet, quite as lofty as the one I had just toppled over, and quite as richly laden with curios, vases and ivories.
So Too was now wide awake and not at all anxious to see this second cabinet share the fate of the first.
“Thy foot to its place!” he called out, waving me to a seat, and placing himself between me and the threatened cabinet. “Thy foot to its place, my gracious benefactor.”